Douglas County sheriff's spokeswoman Kathy Tate said no one was injured when the bin collapsed at about 10:50 a.m. The bin is one of 16 owned by the Ottawa Co-op that stand along the Union Pacific railroad tracks at Midland Junction, south of the intersection of US-24 and US-59 highways.

Adrian Derousseau, general manager of the Ottawa Co-op, said there wasn't an explosion and it appeared a split in the pieces of bolted steel that formed the bin caused the collapse.

"I've been managing for about 23 years, and I never had a bolted steel bin split out like that before," he said.

Derousseau said the Ottawa Co-op wouldn't be able to determine the cause of the collapse until cleanup work begins today.

"We have no real clue what happened," he said.

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Adrian Derousseau, general manager of Ottawa Co-op

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No Co-op employees were working Thursday because wet weather had halted harvest-time work temporarily, he said. He said the 30- to 40-year-old storage bins were fully insured.

Derousseau said he learned about the collapse after an employee at the Midland Junction feed store about 100 yards from the bins called to report a large racket.

Karen Welch, a customer service representative at Pines, a business just west of the storage bins, said workers at her building noticed the bin had collapsed after their power was cut. She said a power line connected to the collapsed storage bin provided power to Pines, which remained without power for about two hours after the collapse.

Erin Adamson can be reached at (785) 295-1185 or eadamson@cjonline.com.